Latest Yo, Is This Racist? podcast featured the guest, comedian David Gborie, who was talking about his complicated relationship with rap: how he wasn't really there, personally, for the artsy struggle stuff, the rap by Kendrick or A Tribe Named Quest or the kind of rap that basically becomes accessible for white people. That stuff is still ( Read more... )

Really digging the Wonder Girls' new song.

Sometimes I read romance novels and roll my eyes at the "flaws" authors give their heroines: oh god forbid, they're just so tall, unlike the dainty and beloved Incomparables. Or their hair is dark brown instead of beautifully blond -- or they're so pale and plain blond instead of an exotic dark beauty. ( Read more... )

Apropos of nothing I've gone back in time and gotten into some of Miss A's old stuff. "Hush" and "I Don't Need A Man" are great in very different ways, and I'm always impressed by the choreography for "Breathe". And I am super fond of Fei and Jia for their BFFery with Zhou Mi, and that one Running Man ep where Fei was great at cooking. Apparently ( Read more... )

I figured I should make this post before April was over and I was even further behind! As it stands, travel and hosting visitors and general work/life obligations have set me back on my list of things to read and watch. It just keeps getting longer, not shorter!

( Books, January-March 2016. )

I read a lot in October, probably matching what I'd read in June-September, mostly because books were easier than having a social life. And I sort of got on a roll -- Agatha Christie novels and regencies are just so easy and quick. Do they really count? But they were always enjoyable, and easy to get lost in another world even if briefly.

( Books, October 2015. )

One day when One Piece ends, it may be my favorite manga. This is on the presumption and faith that Oda still knows what he's doing, has a plan, and will end strong and epic. Luffy, our Pirate King. ♥ (I do wonder, a bit apprehensively, if he'll do another major character death. It seems unthinkable to me, and a ruination of the ultimate dream for ( Read more... )

So I got angry yesterday about hockey and the Patrick Kane case and accidentally ended up venting with an essay.

( Cut because no one needs this shit in their lives. )

The New York Times' article on Amazon business practices: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising WorkplaceFrom a purely business perspective: brilliant, perhaps. From a human perspective: callous, to say the least. Sickening even. But are our businesses required to be morally good? Do we and should we demand better from them? Well, isn't ( Read more... )

Two recs:

1. For Regency that is not Heyer, this was pretty enjoyable.

Knaves' Wager by Loretta Chase
Lilith Davenant, has ample reason to detest Julian Wyndhurst, Marquess of Brandon: he's exactly the kind of man who hastened the demise of her profligate husband, and the debt he owed to Julian has forced her to an engagement with a wealthy ( Read more... )

Seven years on, I'm still pissed at Only 13 and rooting for Henry and Zhou Mi even after a dramatically waning interest in kpop.


( Read more... )